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BUSINESS ENGLISH · ENGLISH IN VIDEO · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

THE MONEY TALK

EVERY COUPLE
NEEDS TO HAVE

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1 Warm up

Read the following dialogue and answer the questions.

Tracy: What on earth did you spend £195 on last week?

Steve: It was a new lens for my camera. I told you I was going to buy it!
Tracy: I didn’t know it was going to be that much! We still owe the garage for the car repairs.
Steve: Well maybe we’d have it if you hadn’t spent all that money on the girls’ weekend last
month.
Tracy: It wasn’t a girls’ weekend; it was my best friend’s wedding. What am I supposed to do?
Not go?
Steve: Did you need three dresses for it though?
Tracy: I needed them more than you need a new camera lens. Just use your phone like a
normal person!

1. Have you ever had an argument similar to this one? What was it about?
2. How do you make decisions about what to spend your money on?
3. Do you think Tracy is right to be angry with Steve? Or do you think she is being unfair to Steve?
4. What advice would you give Tracy and Steve?

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2 Focus on vocabulary
Part A: Look at the words below and write them next to the correct definitions.

capability (n) disclose (v) immersion (n) predictor (n)

significant other (n) spouse (n) strife (n) vulnerability (n)

1. : to reveal information that wasn’t known before, especially secret information

2. : a romantic partner, either married or unmarried
3. : problems, disagreements or trouble between two people or groups of people
4. : something which indicates what will happen in the future
5. : a skill needed to do a certain task
6. : a partner you are married to
7. : a situation when a person is completely involved in a situation
8. : something which causes a person or an object to be open to physical or emotional
damage

Part B: Now write the vocabulary from Part A into the correct gap in the following sentences.

1. If you’re depressed, it’s best to see a doctor as depression can be a of poor

physical health.
2. I always say that the best way to learn a language is complete in the country
where the language you are trying to learn is spoken.
3. We’ve employed a security company to install cameras around the building. We’re trying to reduce
its to another burglary.
4. I’ve asked, but they said they weren’t currently able to the salary for this position.
5. I need to upgrade my computer. It doesn’t have the to run at the speed I need.
6. I’m having a party the weekend after next. Feel free to come along and bring your
if you have one!
7. His debts have caused quite a bit of in their marriage.
8. Benefits of the job would include 3 weeks paid time off each year, a company car and full health
insurance for you and your .

Now in pairs, answer the following questions.

1. Who do you disclose your personal problems to? Why do you choose that particular person, or
those people?
2. Are you someone who is able to show your vulnerability to close friends and family? Or do you
like to keep certain things to yourself?
3. What are the most important qualities in either your actual, or your potential, significant other?
4. What situations in the past have caused you the most strife?

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3 Watching for details

Now watch the first part of the video (00:00 - 00:49) and answer the following questions.

1. What percentage of people would rather talk about their previous romantic relationships with a
new partner than talk about finances?
2. What, according to Wendy De La Rosa, is the strongest predictor of divorce?
3. What does Wendy De La Rosa think you need to discuss if you want to improve your relationship?

4 Video comprehension

Now watch the rest of the video (00:50 - 03:14) and answer the following questions.

1. A study in 2018 showed that the partner who managed the couple’s finances ...

a. improved their skills over time.

b. suffered from far higher levels of stress within the partnership.
c. was more likely to leave the partnership.
d. was more likely to be using more money for themselves.

2. Women live longer than men ...

a. 55% of the time.

b. 65% of the time.
c. 75% of the time.
d. 85% of the time.

3. If you haven’t been responsible for managing finances, ...

a. you should avoid doing it because it’s complex.

b. it’s much easier to make serious errors and lose money.
c. it’s much more difficult to understand later on.
d. she recommends taking a short online course to help with the basics.

4. Research has shown that trust, cooperation and intimacy in relationships is improved by ...

a. seeing a professional therapist.

b. sharing fears and weaknesses with each other.
c. shopping together.
d. saving for large purchases together.

5. Of the three financial questions Wendy De La Rosa asks you to consider, she does not ask: ...

a. How do you measure your financial success?

b. Should you seek professional financial help?
c. What are your long-term financial goals?
d. Which financial decision do you wish your parents had not made?

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6. The first step she suggests you take with your partner is ...

a. write down everything you have spent money on together in the last month.
b. create a spreadsheet showing your income and your spending.
c. set some time aside to have a discussion.
d. talk to a registered financial advisor.

Now in pairs, answer the following questions.

1. Would you rather discuss your past relationships with a new partner than your financial history?
Why/Why not?
2. Do you agree with Wendy De La Rosa that couples should openly discuss their finances? Or not?
Why?
3. Have you, or would you, talk to your partner in depth about your financial situation? What did
you, or would you, find difficult about it?

5 Scanning for details

You are going to read about three people and their financial situation within their relationship. Quickly
scan through the texts on page five and find the answers to the following questions.

1. Who is studying at University?

2. Who earns £60,000 per year?
3. Who earns £27,000 per year?
4. Who has a legal career?
5. Who has a child?

6 Text comprehension

Read the texts again and decide if the following statements are True, False or Not Given.

1. Leanne is unconcerned about her financial situation.

2. Hassan reimburses Leanne when she spends money on him.
3. Sirida’s husband works longer hours than Sirida does.
4. Sirida monitors their financial situation closely.
5. June and Colin are very open about their financial situation with one another.
6. Colin has a private account in addition to his joint account with June.

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Text A - Leanne, 38

My boyfriend, Hassan, and I have been together for about 4 years now. He’s studying full-
time for a Master’s degree in Psychology. I’m a lawyer and earn about £80,000 per year,
so I don’t really worry about money. I don’t mind being the breadwinner while he furthers
his career. He gets uncomfortable with it sometimes and will pressure me to take him to a
cheaper restaurant instead of a fancy one. Or he’ll tell me he’ll pay me back for things, but he
never does. I don’t begrudge it though. I like to wind him up and tell him he’s my arm candy,
and he sulks. But it’s what you do for love, isn’t it? What’s mine is his.

Text B - Sirida, 45

I earn £20, 000 a year, but my husband earns £60K. The house was already mine when we
married and he moved in. He pays half the mortgage, but he doesn’t see the house as his
responsibility because it’s not his. His attitude is that he works really hard for his money, so
doesn’t see why he should just blow it all. We have a seven-year-old son and a lot of my
money goes on paying for his child care and maintenance for the house. He sometimes buys
presents for our son, but neglects to buy the more boring things that he really needs, such as
shoes. We don’t have a joint account, so I’ve no idea what he does with his money. If I want
to go out for the night, I have to email him to make sure he doesn’t have plans and will stay
in with our son. Most people at work think I’m a single mother.

Text C - June, 26

My boyfriend, Colin, and I have been cohabiting for about 9 months now. He earns £26,000
per year and I earn a bit more, £27,000. We’ve been very careful to split absolutely everything
and have full disclosure about our finances. If we buy something we both use, we each pay
half. We split all the bills fifty-fifty too. We have a spreadsheet on the computer where we
record all of our purchases every day, so we can see everything. We’ve agreed that if we
break up in future, we will divide everything equally. I’d secretly really like to get a cat, but I
don’t think Colin wouldn’t be into it. That’s the choice you make when you live with someone,
I suppose. You can’t just do what you want and you have to pull your weight.

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7 Rephrasing

Part A: Look at the text on page five. Scan through the text and find words or phrases which mean
the same as the following.

1. the person who earns all or the majority of the money in a couple or family. (Text A)

2. to do something for someone without taking any pleasure in it, usually because you feel they are
undeserving (Text A)
3. to say or do things to deliberately provoke a reaction from someone (Text A)
4. an attractive, but not necessarily intelligent, person who goes with someone to public events
purely to make their partner look good and impress others (Text A)
5. to fail to take care of someone or something (Text B)
6. a bank account which can be used by two or more people (Text B)
7. two or more people living together (Text C)
8. to put at least an equal amount of effort into a task as other people who are working on the same
task (Text C)

Part B: Now use the words or phrases from Part A to complete the following sentences. You may
have to change the form of some of the words so that they fit correctly.

1. I generally find with people quite difficult and much prefer to live alone.
2. Although I was making a lot of money, I started my health with constant fast
food, lack of exercise and overconsumption of alcohol.
3. My Dad frequently had health problems when I was growing up, so it was my Mum who was the
.
4. I bought him a birthday present, but I really it quite frankly. He’s been really rude
to me lately and to a lot of other people I know too.
5. I remember the time my brother told me that my brand-new car had been stolen. Turned out he
was just . I nearly had a heart attack!
6. We only really use our for bills and the rent. If we want to go on holiday, we
agree on a budget and each of us contributes from our savings.
7. I swear he thinks I’m just meant to be his at parties. I know way more about
politics than he does, but he always talks over me when I try and join in the conversation.
8. If Jim doesn’t start with the team project, he’s going to get himself fired.

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8 Talking point

Now in pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What advice would you give to Leanne from Text A?

2. What advice would you give to Sirida from Text B?
3. What advice would you give to June from Text C?
4. Look back at the advice you gave for Steve and Tracy in the Warm Up. Would anything change
about your advice now you have watched the video and read the texts? If so, what?
5. In the video, Wendy De La Rose gave three questions that couples should ask. Write five more
questions that you think would be useful for couples to ask each other.

9 Extended Activity/homework

Read the following situation.

• Amanda is 34. She has a good job which earns her £45,000 per year. However, she has
£10,000 in credit card debt which her boyfriend doesn’t know about.
• Leroy is 35. He earns £20,000 per year. However, he has been careful with his money
and has £20,000 in savings. He has no debts.
• They are planning to move in together and have been in a relationship for 2 years.

Write one of the following.

1. A dialogue between Leroy and Amanda discussing their financial situation.

2. A letter to Leroy and Amanda giving them advice on how to handle their situation financially.

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Transcripts

3. Watching for details

Wendy De La Rosa: You know how your partner likes their coffee, what love language they speak
and even their medical history. But how much do you know about their
finances?

Wendy De La Rosa: Chances are, you and your better half are among the 78% of people who would
rather share their full dating history and all of that drama and all of that baggage
that comes along with it, rather than to disclose your full financial history.

Wendy De La Rosa: And yet research shows that your significant other has a large influence on a
whole host of your behaviours. Understanding how they handle money is a
great way to prevent strife and misunderstandings.

Wendy De La Rosa: In fact, financial disagreements rank as the strongest predictor of divorce. So,
my tip here is that if you want to strengthen your relationship, it’s time to talk
about the money. You might be thinking, "my partner and I don’t need to talk;
my partner takes care of the money", or vice versa.

Wendy De La Rosa: But a 2018 study of heterosexual couples show that, in these situations, the
partner who takes on all of the responsibility, the one who manages all of the
financial tasks, they become more and more proficient in financial management
over time.

Wendy De La Rosa: But the other person, the person who has given up all of their financial
responsibilities, their financial management capabilities decline over time. And
what if something happens? Maybe you break up? Maybe it doesn’t work out
or, God forbid, maybe your spouse dies too early?

Wendy De La Rosa: If the person who wasn’t responsible for the money management ends up
on their own, that person oftentimes struggles to regain their financial skills,
making it more and more difficult for them to navigate the world alone.

Wendy De La Rosa: And 75% of the time, it’s the women who outlive the men. For the partner
who hasn’t taken on the money management role, it’s like forgetting a foreign
language. When you stop using it, you lose some of your ability to understand
and communicate in it. But if you keep that financial immersion going, so does
your fluency.

Wendy De La Rosa: Being open about your finances can be very scary. But it can also be very
rewarding. Experiments have shown that shared vulnerability establishes a
greater sense of trust, cooperation and intimacy in relationships. So to get your
started, I, along with a couple of colleagues, developed a list of ten conversation
starters. Here are just three.

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Wendy De La Rosa: Number 1: What are your long-term financial goals? What do you want to
accomplish together? Number 2: How do you measure your financial success?
Is it a house with a white picket fence? Or is it having the ability to live anywhere
around the globe? Number 3: What’s the one thing you wish your parents
would have done differently financially?

Wendy De La Rosa: As a university study found, it’s important to answer these questions together.
Because joint decision-making, making decisions as a couple, oftentimes results
in taking fewer risks that in turn can lead to higher savings.

Wendy De La Rosa: Now I’m sure you intuitively understand that open, honest conversations with
your better half are beneficial, and I understand that it’s difficult to get started,
especially when talking about money. But a great first step is just to put some
time on the calendar.

Wendy De La Rosa: So that you two can have a nice financial chat. Take out your phone right now;
send the calendar invite. Your future self will thank you.

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Key

1. Warm up

5 mins.
Tell students they will be discussing financial advice within the context of a relationship. Ask them to read the
dialogue and discuss the questions. You may want to have a couple of students act it out.

2. Focus on vocabulary

Part A
5 mins.
Ask students to match the vocabulary to the definitions. Ask them to do this unaided in the first instance. Then
check their work with a dictionary or on the Internet if needed. Ensure students are able to pronounce the target
vocabulary.

1. disclose (v) 2. significant other (n) 3. strife (n) 4. predictor (n)

5. capability (n) 6. spouse (n) 7. immersion (n) 8. vulnerability (n)
Part B
10 mins.
Ask students to write the target vocabulary from Part A into the correct gaps.
Note that with question 6 & 8, "significant other" can be used regarding both married and unmarried partners. It
could be used in an informal situation if you didn’t know whether the person was married or not. "Spouse" on
the other hand is only really used in formal situations and usually on documents. You could argue that "spouse"
is a possible answer to question 6, but it would sound very unusual and is highly unlikely. Conversely, "significant
other" is not an option in the case of question 8.

1. predictor 2. immersion 3. vulnerability 4. disclose

5. capability 6. significant other 7. strife 8. spouse

3. Watching for details

5 mins.
Ask students to watch the first part of the video and answer the questions. Stronger students may be able to do
this and the comprehension in the same viewing.

1. 78% 2. financial disagreements 3. money

4. Video comprehension

5 mins.
Ask students to watch the rest of the video and answer the questions. You may want to ask the students to read
the questions and predict the answers ahead of watching the video. Then they can check their answers as they
watch. Depending on the level of the class, you may want to tell them or elicit that a "white picket fence" is an
American metaphor and idiom relating to the ideal of owning a perfect home with a white picket fence surrounding
it. On a deeper level, it’s connected to the idea of living independently and the American Dream.

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1. a 2. c 3. c 4. b 5. b 6. c

5. Scanning for details

5 mins.
Ask the students to scan the text for these details. Give them a strict time limit to encourage them to focus on
scanning rather than reading in detail.

1. Hassan 2. Sirida’s husband 3. June

4. Leanne 5. Sirida (and her husband)

6. Text comprehension

5 mins.
Ask student to decide of the statements are True, False or Not Given. Ask them to underline the part in the text
where they get their answer. If there is nothing to underline, it will be Not Given.

1. True. "I’m a lawyer and earn about 80,000 per year, so I don’t really worry about money."
2. False. "... he’ll tell me he’ll pay me back for things, but he never does."
3. Not Given. He earns 3 times the salary, but it’s not stated how many hours he works.
4. False. "We don’t have a joint account, so I’ve no idea what he does with his money."
5. True. "We’ve been very careful to split absolutely everything and have full disclosure about our finances."
6. Not Given. There’s no information about their bank accounts.

7. Rephrasing

Part A
5 mins.
Ask students to scan through the text and find the words or phrases in question.

1. breadwinner 2. begrudge 3. to wind someone up 4. arm candy

5. neglect 6. a joint account 7. cohabiting 8. pull your weight
Part B
5 mins.
Ask students to complete the sentences in Part B. You may want to allow students to complete this using a
dictionary or the Internet, depending on their level.

1. cohabiting 2. neglecting 3. breadwinner 4. begrudged

5. winding me up 6. joint account 7. arm candy 8. pulling his weight

8. Talking point

10 mins.
Ask students to discuss the questions. Circulate and help as needed.

9. Extended Activity/homework

40 mins +.
Ask students to read the situation and write either a dialogue or a letter. You may want the students to do
this individually at home, or you may want them to do it in pairs or small groups as a class activity. You could

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ask students to act out finished dialogues when you have had an opportunity to check them. Ask the students
to include ideas from the lessons and their own thoughts in their writing. As always, ask them to check their
grammar, spelling and punctuation before submitting their work.

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